Deploy Django on AWS Elastic Beanstalk

AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a powerful platform for deploying and managing web applications. It simplifies the deployment process by automatically handling the infrastructure, including load balancing, scaling, and monitoring. This guide, brought to you by The Coding College, walks you through deploying a Django application on Elastic Beanstalk.

Why Use Elastic Beanstalk for Django?

  1. Ease of Use: Deploy applications with minimal configuration.
  2. Scalability: Automatically adjusts resources based on traffic.
  3. Integration: Seamlessly connects with other AWS services like RDS and S3.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

  • AWS Account: Create one at aws.amazon.com.
  • AWS CLI: Install and configure the AWS CLI on your system. 
aws configure
  • Provide your AWS credentials and default region.
  • Elastic Beanstalk CLI (EB CLI): Install the EB CLI for managing Elastic Beanstalk environments. 
pip install awsebcli
  • Django Project: A Django project ready for deployment.

Step 1: Prepare Your Django Application

1. Install Required Packages

Ensure your project includes dependencies for production:

pip install gunicorn psycopg2-binary

Add these to your requirements.txt:

gunicorn  
psycopg2-binary

2. Configure settings.py

Update your Django settings for production:

  1. Allowed Hosts: 
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['.elasticbeanstalk.com', 'your-custom-domain.com']
  1. Static Files:
    Configure static files to use Elastic Beanstalk’s storage: 
STATIC_URL = '/static/'  
STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR / 'staticfiles'
  1. Database:
    Use environment variables for the database configuration.

Step 2: Initialize Elastic Beanstalk

1. Set Up EB CLI

Navigate to your project directory and initialize Elastic Beanstalk:

eb init -p python-3.8 django-app

Choose a region and link the application to an existing or new Elastic Beanstalk environment.

2. Create an Environment

Create a new environment for your application:

eb create django-env

Elastic Beanstalk will set up an EC2 instance, load balancer, and other required resources.

Step 3: Configure Database (RDS)

Elastic Beanstalk allows you to integrate with Amazon RDS for database management:

  • Create an RDS Instance:
    Use the AWS Management Console to create an RDS database (e.g., PostgreSQL).
  • Update Database Configuration:
    Add the RDS credentials as environment variables in Elastic Beanstalk. 
eb setenv DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:password@hostname:port/dbname
  • Modify settings.py:
    Use dj_database_url to parse the database URL: 
import dj_database_url

DATABASES = {  
    'default': dj_database_url.config(default=config('DATABASE_URL'))  
}

Step 4: Deploy the Application

1. Run Deployment Command

Deploy your application to Elastic Beanstalk:

eb deploy

2. Monitor Deployment

After deployment, use the following command to monitor the environment:

eb status

Access your application using the provided Elastic Beanstalk URL.

Step 5: Post-Deployment Steps

1. Configure a Custom Domain

Map a custom domain to your application by setting up a CNAME in your domain provider’s DNS settings.

2. Set Up HTTPS

Enable HTTPS by adding an SSL certificate using AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) and configuring your load balancer.

3. Test Your Application

Ensure all application features work as expected in the production environment.

Final Thoughts

Deploying Django on AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a robust solution for scalable and secure web applications. By following this guide, you can simplify your deployment process and leverage AWS’s powerful infrastructure.

For more Django deployment tips, visit The Coding College!

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